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| Back to home page | Dave's other sites: > CanGenealogy > Interlink Bookshop > Volhynia > Genealogy Unlimited |
| About Dave Obee Dave Obee is author of Making the News, to be published by the Times Colonist in Victoria, British Columbia, in February 2008 to mark its 150th anniversary. He is also the co-author (with Sherry Irvine) of Finding Your Canadian Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide, published by Ancestry in October 2007. He has compiled six other books for Canadian genealogists, and has given more than 225 talks at seminars and society meetings since 1997. Dave is behind CanGenealogy, a link site that is selective and sorted for ease of use. He also runs Volhynia.com, a website dedicated to the past and future of the region in the northwest corner of Ukraine. He is one of the owners of Interlink Bookshop and Genealogical Services of Victoria, B.C. Interlink runs two web sites -- Interlink Bookshop for the British Isles and North America, as well as Genealogy Unlimited which has a superb selection of books and maps from Europe. Dave has visited 17 countries in Europe, and has done genealogical research in most of them. He has a keen interest in the world war battle areas in France, Belgium and Luxembourg. He served as president of the Federation of East European Family History Societies from 2004 through 2007. Dave was born in British Columbia, and his roots there go back to the arrival of his great-great-grandfather from Manitoba in 1890. Some of his paternal ancestors arrived in North America two centuries ago, settling in New York State and Ontario. His mother was born in a German colony in Russia, and came with her parents to Canada in 1928. He has been researching his own family history since 1978, when he took a night course through Camosun College in Victoria, British Columbia. Dave has been a newspaper reporter or editor for several different newspapers in British Columbia or Alberta since 1972. He is currently editorial page editor of the Victoria Times Colonist. Personal research interests Dave has collected extensive information on the German Baptist colonies in the Neudorf area of Volhynia, in the Ukraine. His personal family tree includes names such as Weiss, Scheffler, Tiedtke, Reschke, Tiede, Menzel, Hartmann, Schindler, and Boehnert. Villages include Iwanowitsch, Solodyri, Pulin, Neudorf, Florowka, Skolobow, Rogowka, and Wjasowitz; all are near Zhitomir. Dave's Volhynian ancestors went there in the 1860s. They had lived in East Prussia, Posen and Poland. Specific towns include Albrechtsdorf, Bartenstein, and Pr. Eylau, in East Prussia (Ostpreussen); Nakel and Bromberg in Posen; and Dabie, Drzewce, Lodz and Konigsbach in Poland. His research also includes: Dave has many American connections, including the Springs of Prince William County, Virginia, the Johnsons of Alpena, Michigan, and countless cousins in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, and North Dakota. Josh Wilson Road, between Interstate 5 and the coast in Washington's Skagit County, is named after Dave's great-uncle.
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| Back to home page | Dave's other sites: > CanGenealogy > Interlink Bookshop > Volhynia > Genealogy Unlimited |